In general, the portable terminals for the acquisition of product data comprise a coded information reader, for example a bar code reader, a power supply system, for example a battery, an internal management unit of the terminal, provided with a memory and a software, and an interface for the logical connection with an external control station, for example a console or a remote station. In addition, the terminals normally also comprise a user interface, for example an alphanumeric keyboard or a touch-screen. The logical connection with the related external control station allows to link the terminal with a computer system, for example the management system of the warehouse products.
In the following present description and in the subsequent claims, with the expression “coded information reader”, it is meant any device capable of acquiring information related to one object (for example, distance, volume, bulk, or its identification data) by means for example of the acquisition and processing of a light signal diffused by the same object. With the term: “coded information” in such case it is intended to indicate the set of identification data contained in an optical code.
With the term: “optical code”, it is intended any graphical representation having the function of storing coded information. A particular example of optical code consists of linear or two-dimensional codes wherein the information is coded by means of appropriate combinations of elements of predetermined shape, for example squares, rectangles or hexagons, of dark colour (normally black) separated by light elements (spaces, normally white), such as the barcodes, stacked codes and two-dimensional codes in general, colour codes, etc. More generally, the term “optical code” also comprises other graphical forms having information coding function, including printed characters (letters, numbers, etc.) and particular patterns (such as stamps, logos, signatures, fingerprints etc.). The term “optical code” also comprises detectable graphical representations, not only in the visible light field, but also in the wavelength range comprised between infrared and ultraviolet.
With “coded information” it is also desired to indicate any piece of information, or set of information, coded and stored in a transponder or RFID “tag” which can be read and/or written in a known manner by means of a reading and/or writing radiofrequency device (better known as RFID reader). Generally, the readers of optical codes comprise at least one electronic circuit, one light source, for example formed by a group of LED diodes and possibly lighting optics, adapted to illuminate an optical code, for example a barcode, and reception optics and a linear or matrix light sensor, of the charge coupling type (CCD) or of the Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor (C-MOS) type, cooperating with the electronic circuit and adapted to receive the light diffused by the barcode. The light sensor is adapted to receive the light diffused by subsequent adjacent portions of the code, upon focusing by the reception optics, while the reader is positioned facing the code itself, in contact or at a distance; in this manner, the light sensor is adapted to generate a signal modulated by the succession of the differently coloured elements (light and dark bars in case of barcode reading) of the code. Such alternated signal is processed by the electronics circuit for the extraction of the alphanumeric information associated with the optical code.
There are also readers of “back-reflective” type, in which the reading of the optical code occurs via lighting in succession of the various zones of the optical code by means of a collimated light beam, typically a laser, generated by a laser diode with suitable optics, and by means of the detection by a photodiode of the light diffused from the zone of the optical code lightened each time.
If the coded information is stored in a RFID tag, the reader generates an electromagnetic field at an excitation frequency for the tag that, once it has entered such field, transmits towards the reader a signal containing the code stored in the tag itself. An analogous method is used for writing information in the tag.
The coded information can also be the combination of one or more optical codes and a RFID tag. Readers are in fact known provided with optical and electronic members for reading both information types.
The portable terminals are used in different sectors of commerce and industry for acquiring data related to products that have to be treated. For example, is known the use of portable terminals for the reading of coded information in optical codes or RFID tags provided on the packaging of the products, or on the products themselves, in warehouses or collection points, post offices, points of sale or sorting centres, etc. The terminals are used by the operator in charge for receiving and sorting of products, or by the inventory, warehouse or delivery worker, etc., or they are directly used by the final user in warehouses or shopping centres of mid- to large-size in order to achieve a self-service shopping system, and in particular a self-scanning system.
In the following present description and subsequent claims, with the expression “self-service shopping system”, it is intended to indicate a shopping system in which the customer directly takes the products from the various shelves of the shopping centre which he intends to purchase and places them in a cart or basket, and then makes his way to the checkout counter where an operator of the shopping mall scans such products one by one before the window of an optical reader so to read its optical code, in the end calculating the overall amount to be paid.
With the expression “self-scanning shopping system”, it is instead intended to indicate a self-service shopping system in which the reading of the optical code is not carried out by the operator of the shopping centre at the checkout counter, but by the same customer, by means of a suitable portable terminal previously taken from a suitable terminal distribution device provided for in the shopping centre. The customer, in such shopping system, reads the optical code of the products to be acquired as they are drawn from the shelves of the shopping centre and before putting them in the cart or basket; at the end of the shopping operations, the customer puts the terminal back into the device where he had taken it, takes a receipt from the same bearing the overall amount to be paid and heads to the checkout counter to pay, after having shown the receipt. Alternatively, the customer heads directly to the checkout counter of the shopping centre with the terminal; this is then delivered to a shopping centre operator who, by means of reading a particular end-shopping code activates the data transfer related to the shopping, so to calculate in the end the overall amount to be paid.
As is known, the self-scanning shopping systems allow to considerably increase the speed of the operations conducted by the checkout counter operators in shopping centres, removing therefrom the task of carrying out the reading operations of the optical codes on every single product; such operations, in fact, often lead to the formation of long queues at the checkout counters, especially at particularly peak hours, like closing time.
Even if in the present description reference will be explicitly made to the application for self-scanning shopping, the portable terminal according to the present invention is also applicable in different sectors, such as, for example, the logistics sector (transportation, distribution and goods storing), the postal sector (collection and sorting of the mail and postal parcels), the quality control sector (verification of the data related to the products in assembly line or production), etc.
The Applicant has observed that the user of the terminal typically also has a cellular device (GSM, UMTS or other). Such device is used today for carrying out operations that are also very different from voice communication, such as for example payment operations and personal identification operations.
It often happens that the user has the need to simultaneously use the cellular device and the terminal.
It is known that the terminals can be provided with GSM and/or UMTS functionalities. In this case, the terminals must be provided with one slot in which a SIM telephone card is inserted. The insertion of a SIM card in the terminal allows the connection to the cellular network of a mobile operator for sending and receiving of calls and data. The use of this function by the final user is often difficult, since it is necessary to arrange a dedicated SIM card at the terminal, or it is necessary to take the SIM card from a different cellular device of the user and insert it in the terminal.
The applicant has deemed it opportune to modify the current terminals in order to facilitate their connection with external devices, so to avoid the need to arrange a dedicated SIM card or use the SIM card of other devices.
The present invention therefore refers, in a first aspect thereof, to a portable terminal for acquiring product data, comprising:                a coded information reader;        a user interface;        an interface for the local connection with an external control station;        an interface for the wireless connection with cellular devices and/or telephones and/or PDAs;characterized in that it also comprises at least one internal management unit for activating said interface for the wireless connection with a single pre-identified cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA, configuring the terminal as a peripheral device of said cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA.        
Advantageously, the interface permits establishing a wireless and bidirectional connection with a cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA, so to be able to carry out, by means of the terminal, the operations that can generally be carried out by means of the aforesaid device.
In the following present description, for the sake of clarity and for simplifying the reading, reference will often be made to cellular devices. It is however intended that what is said for the cellular devices will have analogous application to portable devices with telephone function of different type, such as for example portable telephone devices of another kind, using for example VOIP over WiFi, mixed technology devices (i.e. with GSM or UMTS and with WiFi) or PDAs (such as BlackBerry® or PDAs).
Preferably, the interface for the wireless connection is an interface for the bidirectional wireless connection based on a short-range, exclusive wireless communication protocol, for example a Bluetooth® protocol commonly used for the connectivity between modern cell phones. A protocol of the abovementioned type has the advantage of permitting the connection between the terminal and a single cellular device. In other words, once a connection between the terminal and the cellular device of a user has been established, such protocol does not allow establishing other connections with other cellular devices.
The internal management unit is therefore preferably programmed for activating the connection with a single cellular device, usually when such device was positively identified by means of the aforesaid communication protocol.
Preferably, the user interface of the terminal comprises at least one element selected from among a speaker, a display, a physical or logical keyboard (for example a virtual keyboard on a touch-screen), and a microphone or voice input system. More preferably, the user interface comprises all of the above-listed elements.
The coded information reader is preferably an optical code reader, for example a barcode reader.
Preferably, the interface for the logical connection with an external control station is an interface for the bidirectional wireless connection of WLAN type. The external control station can be a computer.
In a second aspect thereof, the invention regards a method for operating the terminal, according to claim 6.
In particular, the present invention concerns a method for operating a terminal according to any one of the preceding claims as a peripheral device of said cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA, characterised in that it comprises the steps of:                activating said interface for the wireless connection with cellular devices and/or telephones and/or PDAs;        establishing a wireless connection with a pre-identified cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA.        
Preferably, the interface for the wireless connection with cellular devices and/or telephones and/or PDAs is an interface for the bidirectional wireless connection based on a short-range, exclusive wireless communication protocol, such as for example the Bluetooth® protocol. The identification of the cellular device can for example occur by carrying out, through the terminal, a scanning of the active cellular devices (i.e. visible at the Bluetooth® interface) in an area adjoining the terminal, or alternatively by carrying out, through one's own cellular device, a scanning of the active terminals (i.e. visible at the Bluetooth® interface) in an area adjoining the cellular device, and establishing a bidirectional one-to-one connection between terminal and cellular device.
Once connected to the previously identified cellular device, the terminal is configured as a peripheral device of such device.
For example, the user interface of the terminal can be activated for receiving and/or sending at least one telephone call, a data file, a voice message, an audio signal, a digital image or a message in text/image format, using the wireless connection with the corresponding cellular device, telephone and/or PDAs. In other words, the terminal can be configured as a peripheral device of the cell phone or PDA of the user and can replicate several of its functions or implement new ones.
Preferably, the short-range, exclusive wireless communication protocol underlying the functioning of the wireless interface of the terminal can be configured according to a plurality of functional profiles, which can be selected independently from each other, or in combination.
As an example, one functional profile is the “Headset” profile, so that the terminal is comparable to the earphone of a cell phone, and at which a speaker and a microphone of the user interface of the terminal (or an earphone connected thereto) are activated in order to permit the user to carry out telephone conversations and/or exchange voice messages or audio signals in general with the cellular device. When the Headset profile is activated, the user can use the terminal as if it was his/her own cell phone. The terminal, for example, receives calls and/or voice and/or voice messages and sounds by means of the Bluetooth® connection with the cell phone, which can be left, for example, in a pocket of the user's clothes. The Headset can be configured in combination with the “speaker” operating mode, at which the user interface of the terminal permits carrying out telephone conversations with the terminal that is far from the ear and mouth of the user.
A second functional profile can be the “Hands Free” profile, at which a physical or logical keyboard of the user interface of the terminal is activated in order to permit the typing of numbers and/or letters. If the cell phone supports voice recognition, it is possible with the Hands Free profile to also control it by means of voice commands sent through the microphone or voice input system of the terminal. In this way, the user can make and/or receive a call with the terminal, instead of using the keyboard of his own cell telephone or PDA, from which the term Hands Free arises, referred to the cell phone. The Hands Free profile can also be configured in association with the speaker operating mode.
In addition, there are profiles suitable (in particular OBEX) for the transmission of text messages (SMS), images and/or data in general, by means of the Bluetooth® connection with the cell phone.
In general, the user interface of the terminal can be activated in order to show and/or transfer the contents of or information on data/images files stored in the cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA of the user.
Preferably, the user interface of the terminal can be activated in order to modify the aforesaid data/image files. This feature permits, for example, reading and modifying a shopping list stored in the cell phone of the user before he/she goes shopping or to write in the cell phone the total or partial list of the shopping completed during the self-scanning of products in a supermarket.
Preferably, the interface for the logical connection with an external control station can be activated in order to transfer data and/or images acquired by the terminal to the station.
The wireless connection between the terminal and the pre-identified cell device is preferably of bidirectional type. Therefore, in a preferred embodiment of the present invention, such connection can be activated in order to transfer data and/or images acquired by the terminal to a memory of the cellular device.
For example, it is possible that advertising messages and/or the list of products acquired by the customer of a supermarket at the end of the shopping or specific information on several products are sent to the control station outside the cellular device, through the wireless connection between the cellular device and the terminal.
According to a preferential aspect of the present invention, the user interface of the terminal can be activated in order to carry out a recognition/identification procedure of a single cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA of a user. The coded information reader is activated only when the recognition/identification process is successfully completed. This characteristic permits associating the data acquired by the terminal with a single cellular device, i.e. permits associating the data with a single user and cellular device owner.
The coded information reader and/or user interface of the terminal can be activated by means of a command sent by the cellular device. For example, once the Bluetooth® connection is established between the cellular device and the terminal, the user can use the cellular device for sending an activation signal of the optical reader and/or user interface.
In particularly preferred embodiments of the present invention, the user interface and/or interface for the logical connection with an external control station can be activated and configured for carrying out payments. This feature is particularly advantageous when the terminal is used for collecting data from products sold in a shopping centre, in a supermarket, etc.
Preferably, the connections of the terminal, i.e. the user interface, the interface for the wireless connection with the cellular device and/or interface for the logical connection with an external control station, are deactivated at the end of the coded information reading, for example, in the case of self-scanning applications, at the end of the shopping.
The terminal according to the present invention thus permits carrying out the recognition of a single user by means of an identification process of a cellular device and/or telephone and/or PDA thereof.